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There is no person who can do literally anything just "because their put their mind to it", and the world is nobodies oyster because it's not an oyster. Also, b

There is no person who can do literally anything just "because their put their mind to it", and the world is nobodies oyster because it's not an oyster. Also, because it has other people in it. "Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always pity brought me back to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people a burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. I long to alleviate this evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer." --- Bertrand Russell, "Autobiography" Unless you're arguing that devoted work doesn't lead to excelling I'm not arguing it doesn't, why wouldn't it. I just don't see how that makes anyone a god, whatever that's even supposed to mean other than "epic" or "awesome" or other nonsense. No, that's simply being a human. Heck, it even applies to plants. As I just said, it's not about YOU putting your mind about something, it's about someone ELSE putting your mind to something. That this crucial distinction keeps getting missed is kinda creepy :/

Dylan16807 13y ago
The quote in question is, again "the sort of person that can excel at anything they put their mind to, just because they want to". That's very clearly YOU putting your mind to something, not someone else putting your mind to it. And you kind of ignored my entire point. It's not that you can 'do literally anything', obviously you can't become the incredible hulk through force of will. It's about being able to excel at any chosen field by being highly devoted to it. And on top of that, the 'godliness', is being able to chose a topic to be exceptionally devoted to. It's the choice of what to be passionate about that I would be depressed that nobody can do. But apparently you were just interpreting 'excel at anything' as 'do literally anything' and never meant any of what I was responding to.

Dylan16807 13y ago

The quote in question is, again "the sort of person that can excel at anything they put their mind to, just because they want to". That's very clearly YOU putting your mind to something, not someone else putting your mind to it. And you kind of ignored my entire point. It's not that you can 'do literally anything', obviously you can't become the incredible hulk through force of will. It's about being able to excel at any chosen field by being highly devoted to it. And on top of that, the 'godliness', is being able to chose a topic to be exceptionally devoted to. It's the choice of what to be passionate about that I would be depressed that nobody can do. But apparently you were just interpreting 'excel at anything' as 'do literally anything' and never meant any of what I was responding to.